ReeHart – Blogging from the Heart

Posts Tagged ‘banking’

Have you ever received an email from a company that you do business with asking you to visit a website to update some personal information? You are asked to enter you login information and update some vital personal information. But, how can you be sure that you are at the website that you think you are, and not someplace that is looking to steal your information?

There is a widespread problem today of identity thieves posing as legitimate websites looking to get you personal information so that they can either steal your identity or clean out your bank account. When thieves use email to trick you into giving out your personal information, it is called phishing.

It is not as easy as you might think to spot a phishing email. They usually look very genuine and will mimic the type of an email you would receive from the real company. However, when you click on a link in a phishing email, you are taken to a website which has the sole purpose of stealing your identity.

The fake, or phishing, websites are going to have the same look and feel of the website for the real company. One way to tell the difference between the fake and real website is to carefully look at the website address. The fake one may have the real website in its name, but it will also have extra characters that give it away.

The people that are behind the phishing websites are usually professional crooks. They can afford to spend a lot of money and time to make very realistic emails and websites because there is a lot of money to be made in stealing personal information. They are out to get you, so you have to be careful.

Coming across as being the real website is something that the phishing criminals spend a lot of time to perfect. Because they want to ultimately steal your personal information, and profit from this, they will go to great lengths to appear to be real. They will use the appropriate logos and other features that you will find on the real website, which tends to put you at ease.

It can be very difficult for the average person to determine if an email or website is real. The criminals are counting on you to not be able to tell the difference and trust that you are on the real website. This lets them steal your information with great ease.

Never clicking on links contained in an email is your best defense against being caught by a phishing attack. Go directly to any website that you want to visit, even if you think that the email is real. By never clicking on email links, you can never become a victim of a phishing scheme.

#3 SKILL DEVELOPMENT

I’m biased, but I received the best business training possible in my years at McKinsey. Intense and thorough exposure to textbook business principles and practices. In addition, the team-based model leads to mentorship opportunities with managers, partners, and coworkers. Finally, you have close client interaction which develops “client skills” – from managing client teams to leading meetings to learning how to navigate diverse corporate cultures.

Having said that, here’s a quick list of what you can expect to learn in both industries:

To clarify – by “hard skills”, I mean software tools (ie Microsoft Office Suite), analytics (eg, financial valuation). By “soft skills”, I mean the interpersonal skills to influence and work effectively with clients, coworkers, and managers.

CONSULTING

Hard skills:

1) Microsoft Powerpoint – you will (and have to) become a master at this, and will eventually have the ability to produce presentations quickly, concisely, and meaningfully

2) Microsoft Excel – you’ll get less exposure than in banking. Still, “modeling” is a big component of any consultant’s work. Note – “financial modeling” in consulting projects is not identical to financial modeling at investment banks

3) Business expertise – you’ll get exposure to different industries and functions, and begin to develop specializations if you are interested. This expertise may be as broad as “market entry strategy” and or specific as “benchmarking for consumer goods companies”.

Soft skills:

1) Client handling (explained above)

2) Close team interaction

3) Communication skills – this is a critical element of consulting work. Findings are useless if you can’t persuade clients to believe in them and implement recommendations

4) Project/workflow planning and execution – this is subtle but important. Much of the time at investment banks, you are given incremental work – eg, add these updated numbers to the model, bind these presentations, insert a graph on chart 11. Consulting is focused on you OWNING a piece of the entire project, setting your own deliverables and timeline, and executing against that framework. This helps you develop the ability to be “standalone” in consulting lingo.

INVESTMENT BANKING

Hard skills:

1) Microsoft Excel – clearly you will become a master at this, and is a mandatory for success. You’ll know the ins-and-outs, every keyboard shortcut known to man (and then some), and so forth

2) Microsoft Powerpoint – much less exposure here depending on your firm and division (for instance, more in Corporate Finance, less in Mergers & Acquisitions). Practically no experience building strong presentations beginning to end

3) Financial valuation – differs based on your group and focus, but at the very least you’ll understand financial statements, and have a strong knowledge of how companies are financed

Soft skills:

1) Work endurance – this is the one benefit of 100+ hour weeks, which is the ability to work long and hard. Every job you take after banking will feel like a vacation. It’s a great trait to have and desired by employers

2) Seeing the deal-making process – bankers have better access to the business leaders of the day. As a junior banker, you may not have close interaction but will be exposed through meetings, conference calls, etc to these people and get to see how deals are executed

The last 2 points in this post are shorter, because I plan to write separate entries on each of them in the future

#4 NETWORKING

Consultants move on to a broad array of careers – from corporate to academia, non-profit to public sector. Investment bankers generally continue within the financial world. Your professional network and future career opportunities will be influenced by your firm connections and colleagues.

In addition – my perspective is that consulting firms (similar to point #2) facilitate more interactions between alumni and current employees as well as future networking between alumni than investment banks. However, bulge-bracket investment banks have a much larger alumni base, and it certainly isn’t impossible for you to build strong connections provided you are proactive and innovative enough.

#5 EXIT OPPORTUNITIES

Corollary to point #4, this is influenced by your firm’s alumni and also the following:

-the different headhunters and recruiters that reach out to you

-the different roads your colleagues take and the opportunities that you share with each other

-the relationships you’ve built with more senior colleagues and the doors they can open for you

The conclusion is simple: if you want career flexibility, consulting is the right choice. If you want career flexibility WITHIN finance (and corporate financial roles), investment banking is the right choice.

A great post to read is my “Large management consulting firms versus boutique consulting companies” post for more info on differences between the two.